November 20 Friday – Isabel Lyon and her mother Georgiana Lyon arrived in Florence and were met at the train station by Jean Clemens, “wearing an incongruous lorgnette” (eyeglasses mounted on a handle: an oxymoron!) [Trombley MTOW 29]. Note: Lyon’s trip had been delayed by needed treatments for a bad eye.
Sam’s notebook: “Coat-of-arms: / Pirate. Admiral? Headsman (with great sword—‘knight?’ No. / Makes me blush at every inquiry concerning my coat (was going to place it opp. Würtemburg’s, on our great gate. Lot more criminals & bar sinisters—in his & mine” [NB 46 TS 30]. Note: Sam often left off a closing parenthesis.
Ladies’ Home Journal, p. 1 ran “Mark Twain’s Pictures” with Sam commenting on John T. Lewis and on a porcelain cat [Budd, “Supplement” ALR 16.1 (Spring 1983) 72]. Budd’s no. 191a. Note: pictures by the Boston photographer Thomas E. Marr.